


Hope Is A Thing With Spots

by Cartoon_Charater_Wannabe



Series: Its really a red-scale, not a grey one. [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Is Not Oblivious, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alya Césaire Bashing, Awesome Nino Lahiffe, Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Character Development, Evil Lila Rossi, Fashion Designer Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Gen, Hurt Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Lila Rossi Bashing, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Does Not Have a Crush on Adrien Agreste, Morally Ambiguous Character, Morally Ambiguous Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Mouse Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Multimouse, My First Fanfic, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Round Character Rights!, She doesn't have a crush right away., Strong Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Tags May Change, Thief AU, Well its inspired by Carmen Sandeigo, abuse of commas, briefly mentioned bridgette and felix, she don't need no man!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27598810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cartoon_Charater_Wannabe/pseuds/Cartoon_Charater_Wannabe
Summary: In a world similar to the one we all know, Marinette didn't grow up nice and sweet to strangers. She isn't pure good, do no wrong. Instead, she likes to call herself morally ambiguous. A grey-scale if you will. Well, a red-scale would be more appropriate.Teaser: Blue-bell eyes watch from the top of a building. Going unnoticed like usual, using the twilight sky as a cloak to hide from prying eyes. Marinette shivers from a light breeze but shakes it off. Tonight's the night after all! Bouncing on the balls of her feet, Marinette was trying to not get too hasty. After years of tracking her precious earrings down. She found them.
Series: Its really a red-scale, not a grey one. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2017657
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29
Collections: Miraculous Ladybug Fanfics





	1. Charming day for a meet up. Isn't it?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette is SO ready for this heist. Wait where did it go?

Blue-bell eyes watch from the top of a building. Going unnoticed like usual, using the twilight sky as a cloak to hide from prying eyes. Marinette shivers from a light breeze but shakes it off. Tonight's the night after all! Bouncing on the balls of her feet, she was trying to not get too hasty. After years of tracking her precious earrings down. She found them. To the untrained eyes, the earrings are circles with a black smooth surface and a silver lining on the outside. With the correct ingredient, they become red with five black spots in a quincunx pattern. Very valuable to Marinette for her mentor had them made.

Forged from blue flames, nearly formed diamonds for coals, and blood from both her mentor and her mentor's husband mixed in the metal. Ment for good luck of those pursuing love. Brigette was a fabulous mentor for all things a thief would need. (Along with Felix for stealth training. Bridgette couldn't sneak for her life and was a hit until they yielded to a kind person.) Marinette felt as much love for her pseudo-parents as she did her biological ones. Nothing standing in her way, Marinette slinked down a pipe connected to the apartment building. She used her heels to bounce onto the cobblestone path. Tikki already disabled the cameras and most of the locks. Technically the Louvre is still open until 6 pm. but she wanted to leave before any other thief felt like stealing from here. Like seriously, at least once a week some wannabe without experience gets caught. Marinette musses to herself about what time they show up on a Monday. Technically she was a newbie too but she has an impressive resume under her belt of smaller missions.

"1:00 am. I'm guessing. I have until 10:00 to be out!" She stated in a confident whisper to herself. Marinette wished her partner was here but it was her anniversary and she had no right to ask Tikki to be out tonight.

Entering through the back door she slips into the throwaway/backup room for lesser valuables to change into her soft-footed gear. At the last minute, she decides to check on her prize for tonight one last time. A horrified gasp left Marinette's mouth involuntarily. The earrings disappeared! A black blur moving through the crowd was seen as she scanned the crowd. 'Crumbs' was the only thought she had. Well, it wouldn't be Paris without a little chase on the light-filled rooftops. Right?  
Marinette grabbed a thick black onyx ring that was still in the storage box next to her. She looks down to mentally make a road map to cut off the black figure. A soft, dark chuckle was let out: "You can run pests, but you can't hide from a Ladybug."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! My upload schedule is at least once every three months unless finals week. Sundays are my most likely day to post. I don't have it beta read so if I have mistakes feel free to point it out. I swear the chapters will get longer it's just almost 8:00 and I'm tired.


	2. A Mask is Best Worn, is in the Public Eye.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette's whole night plan is ruined. Well, maybe not totally in the long run. (But she doesn't know that)

Alright, Marinette will be the first to say her night out at the Louvre was not her finest. Or any did any good in general. She’ll have to go through point C to cut him off, then travel under the bridge, did she pack her hang glider?! Guess she’ll have to get lucky- 

Aaannnnndddd she tripped. As much as she tries, Marinette could never truly get rid of her clumsy streak. Not like she had to deal with running on the ground much anyway. She proceeded to take a tumble from a snag in the carpet and pummeled on top of a blond man in a black suit and a green undershirt. The suit seemed to be finer material she recognized and excellent stitch work along the seams. Usually, these types of clothing were made for people who want to look a lot more proper without feeling constricted. She kinda wants to take a closer look and give it a golden embroidery to match the man’s hair. Oh, shoot, the man! 

Marinette looked down at the disoriented person on the floor. She quickly scrambled off before she could embarrass herself even further. The man looked to be in his 20’s on the younger side because he still contained a bit of baby fat in his high cheekbones. Again, he had golden- blond hair that looks slicked back in a low-on-time manner. She would know after watching Luka do it for a few gigs. Green eyes that remind her of spring. The odd thing is that his skin is very pale when his natural color looks to be a California tan. And if she kept peering at him she could see a concealer covering the man’s eye bags and barely noticeable tan lines on the bridge of his nose. 

The man blinked at her in confusion. He was observing her just like she was doing to him. Now she’s just grateful she slipped into her pink dress from her summer line. Heat rises to her cheeks from all the focus of his stare. The first thing she did was go to her purse pack and take out a cookie. “I am so sorry monsieur!” She held out the cinnamon sugar cookie. Like some sort of peace offering gesture. Mister Emeralds-for-eye’s face softened and chuckled light-heartedly. He took the cookie while standing up. Marinette felt oddly elated from this stranger even with everything going wrong tonight. That feeling didn’t last long. She has to get going to catch the other thief.

“It’s quite alright Miss! I wasn’t watching where I was going either.”

“But I was rushing, and if I weren’t I wouldn’t have knocked you over-.” 

He waved her off. “How about saying it was both our faults and move on.” He smiled at her.  
Marinette hesitated, then nodded her head. A beep went off in her ear to tell her Tikki is online. She lifted her hand to her ear to look like she was brushing back her hair. What she was doing was pressing the button to let open up her computer. They came up with this after Marinette was almost snapped in half by the fake fox protege and Tikki couldn’t reach her. The older woman was in the dark for 3 hours. After that night she wants nothing like that to happen again.

In another room, a woman in her mid-thirties that looked seventeen sat staring at a screen. Her dark blue-purple eyes reflected the statistics on her computer showing where the notorious black streak has been hitting. People aren’t very creative with names these days. A soft beep was let out as the laptop next to her opened. Marinette must have sent the situation. 

Tikki slides to the right on her rolling chair. "What have you been up to Marinette?" She muttered to herself. Speaking out loud seems to be a trait all the ladies in the Loveliness have. She turns on one of her planted cameras. The screen opens to one black-haired girl and one blond familiar looking man. How peculiar. Tikki doesn't remember him on the guestlist for tonight. She decided to look up the names of everyone who entered. She tied back her strawberry colored bangs with a clip lying around and got to work. 

A press of a button and the mic is on. “Okay Marinette, can you ask the young man in front of you what his name is?”

Marinette hummed in agreement. The screen on the computer showed her partner asking the man’s name. 

“Adrien. Adrien Agreste.”

“Adrien Agreste?” She repeated so Tikki could hear it clearly. The man or “Adrien” smiled in embarrassment. 

Computers were practically an instrument to Tikki, from the way her fingers flew across the keyboard to the familiar clicking sound whenever her search engine found what she wanted. An “Adrien Agreste” in this case. Her speaker was picking up some fuzzy feedback. Looks like Marinette is getting impatient. The tapping of her foot was an unconscious habit that she found endearing but if not a bit worrisome, with how transparent her friend could be sometimes. 

“Will I get your name tonight?” He said in a joking tone.

Both girls stilled. Technically, Marinette Dupain-cheng is a young fashion designer that runs MCD out of the public eye. She also has a side blog on fashion events she attends undercover to show she exists or likable enough to not be looked into. The thing is that she hasn’t shown what she looked like since high school, the glow up she had after was subtle but enough to not have people recognize her easily. Tikki was homeschooled so she never had to worry about it too much when going into the business. 

“Nettie, Nice to meet you!” She grasped his hand tightly. His hands easily encasing her petite ones. Her stress seeping into the handshake. Adrien winced.

“You’ve got a strong grip!” 

“Oh, I do? Never noticed.” The thief said innocently. Adrien tilted his head. Lips thinning into a Cheshire grin. It was unsettling, to say the least. He looked like he was going to keep talking but Marinette quickly released his hand. She quickly spun on her heels to look at the clock. It’s 8, can’t believe it’s been almost an hour.

“Look at the time! 8 o’clock, just in time to change once I get home.” She turned back from the clock to look at the blond. “I’m sorry. I promised my sister I would be home by 10:00 to see her off for her trip.” 

“That's fine. I hope to meet you again in the future.”

“Me too, Adrien.” 

Marinette straightened her shoulders and walked confidently around Adrien into the crowd. It was almost as if it was a dance. The way she moved through the crowd was swift, easily changing direction in her stride to a predicted way. Easily dodging art enthusiasts and tourists alike.

When she reached the side door the black streak left out of, the door was locked from the inside. The lights above were shining down. Giving her hair a blueish tint along with the doorknob showing no smudges. Just in case Marinette pulls out her soft key. The soft key is a high-end tech piece straight from Tikki Tech. You stick it in the lock, press the back button, and the tech will expand gently to fill all the available space. It can go an inch long and an inch wide made up of ¼ cm by ¼ cm squares to adjust to any lock. She likes to think of it as a skeleton key. Tikki made it compactable for on the go.

In a few seconds, the door swung open and she ran outside as fast as possible. Well as fast as she could in her deactivated high heels. 

"Tikki, do you still have his location?!"

"I'm sorry but none of my cameras were able to catch them. In fact, none of the cameras will turn on."

"They're too small to be seen unless someone is looking for them. Which means they planned this or this is a funny coincidence."

"Just come home. We'll figure it out, we always do." Tikki was annoyed that she'll have to place her cams again but was more concerned about Marinette.

"Yeah," The cold of the night was nipping her nose. Eyes starting to sting and details of the city starting to blur. She lets out a defeated sigh. "I'm coming home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Did you know a group of ladybugs is called loveliness? Thought it was appropriate for their little group. I tried to keep the dialogue the same format that the show does so it’s a bit more believable. Though, I do spend more time explaining the thoughts than showing. I’m working on it I swear. These aren't super long for I don't want to lose interest in writing the chapters and burn out. I do now have a friend fixing my grammar mistakes so I will edit the chapter a bit later. Anyway, feel free to correct me. 
> 
> Please comment below on what you think will happen or have a non-spoiler question. It helps to have others' opinions so I can form the story a bit more on how you guys perceive it. But don't worry you'll get the moonlight chase scene soon. And enjoy your day/night!  
> ~CCW


End file.
